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Merry Christmas Everyone.Hope you all have a great and blessed day. Spread love and happiness always. This is my Christmas Fruit Cake or Plum Cake as they call in India for 2015. Recipe remains the same as last year.

Happy Holidays Everyone! With Christmas just 2 days away, are you guys all set with the holiday preparations? Sorry for a no show from my end for couple of weeks, i fell sick very badly and could hardly manage anything well on my own. I am bouncing back slowly and gradually!Today i am sharing a super easy indian style masala pasta recipe for upcoming holidays. This ain't your ordinary pasta. With flavors bursting out from every corner, this one is delicious! To make it more unique and give a distinct flavor, i have used my ever favorite and trusted Ragú Pasta Sauce.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MadeWithA2Milk #CollectiveBias

Learn how to make this delicious Spiced Hot Chocolate to warm you up in this chilly weather.Happy December everyone! I moved to Cali to escape the brutal Boston Snow and guess what?? As surprising as it is for you who do not reside in California, I am equally surprised as to how cold it is here. RIGHT Now!!! It gets pitch black by 5 pm, temperature is round 20's by evening, windy and thus very very cold! Sigh!!! Cold and windy weather calls for Hot Chocolate. I thought of spicing things up a little bit by making mine Spiced Hot Chocolate.

I have got a great vegetarian appetizer recipe for you all today guys which gets ready in under 30 minutes and is so delicious. Presenting Cheesy Mezzetta Olives Stuffed Mushrooms and an amazing give away at the end of this post.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #DelightfulMoments #CollectiveBiasGuys, i have some Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes Recipe to share for the upcoming holiday season.

I am starting off this blog post with a question. Have you guys ever used coffee creamer in anything besides coffee?? If you just answered "NO", this post will surprise you a lot. I say so because even I was so unaware of how much flavor they add to Baked goodies..

Learn how to make this delicious and easy three ingredient Chocolate Coconut Bites/ Balls for a quick and easy holiday dessert.OK so don't be mad at me if you see me posting desserts like crazy in the coming few days. Tis is the season of jolly guys!!I am so so eagerly awaiting holidays!! I cannot just get into my kitchen and begin some action. My husband has a week long holiday and am super jealous about it!! How cruel right??

Doesn't it seem just like yesterday? I am sure even ya all remember wishing each other "Happy New Year". Let me just add for the nth time,"Time Flies", big time!! It's already Diwali, then Thanksgiving, Christmas and another year comes to an end.

Learn how to make the easiest one pot meal from southern India- "Lemon Rice" with easy to follow step by step instructions.Last Sunday, after being dead tired of my marathon baking sessions, i decided to cook a light weight refreshing meal for lunch. If you have pre-cooked rice, Lemon Rice gets ready in under 10 minutes.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SweetenTheSeason #CollectiveBias

Here comes the best ever chocolate cup cake recipe with cream cheese frosting and toasted coconuts!! Excited?? These are so easy, fail proof and will be your go to cupcake recipe henceforth! I guarantee!! You can impress everyone for Thanksgiving and Christmas with these moist cupcakes. Busy Moms out there, these are specifically for you- super easy to bake & budget friendly! I can barely contain my excitement over the upcoming festive season. Exactly 8 days from today will be Diwali- Festival of lights celebrated in India, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas and then New Year...yippee!!(2016 already??) It's that time of the year where people get busy buying gifts, decorating homes and bake so many festive goodies.

What do you do when you have the best whole wheat pizza dough recipe?? You bake a pizza!! Simple as that!! But not an ordinary one, presenting a very Easy Deep Dish Skillet Pizza with step by step instructions!! Just make them at home already!!

Bid good bye to store bought Pizzas and Pizza Dough and learn how to make the best whole wheat pizza crust at home perfectly every single time.It's been really long time that we had some good home made pizza. OK, let me put it this way, there is a Mountain Mikes just 2 minutes from my apartment...:)We really like their pizzas, they are darn good unlike the other chains i have been to. For those unaware, they seem to be California only Pizza chain as i have not seen them in any of the states(4) i have lived so far!!

Hello guys!! It's a special post today. Some time back Parvathy from Crackle and Temper had invited me to guest post in her blog during Holiday season and am more than glad to be sharing a recipe in her space just in time before holidays. As Halloween and Pumpkin are synonymous with each other here, i am bringing an easy peasy cookie "Pumpkin Spiced Chocolate Chip Cookies."

Learn how to make Kerala Style Egg Roast / Naadan Mutta Roast with me in a very easy manner. This egg roast goes with hot rice, rotis, appams etc. Or even on its own if you are like me. It gets ready in under 30 minutes and is cooked up at least once a week at my place.

Learn how to make Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake with me for your Halloween Theme Parties. Remember the left over pumpkin puree from my Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino?? This is what has been made of it! Till date, i have not come across anyone who does not like a good cheesecake. They are my husband's favorite, primarily because of the no use of flour. I have made in the past no-bake cheesecakes also, but nothing like a baked one!! There is a huge difference in the texture and taste and we just love them.

Hello guys!! I am back with an amazingly easy and delicious Strawberry Banana Oatmeal Smoothie Recipe ready to be whipped up during early morning rush hours Breakfast and as a post workout smoothie.This smoothie is a winner with kidsand adults alike and can be customized as per everyone's needs. Also it's a good way to introduce your kids to smoothies.

Learn how to make Starbucks inspired Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino with only 5 ingredients.How is Fall treating you all?? As always, America has gone into Pumpkin Frenzy. All i see is pumpkins and more pumpkins everywhere!! You can say i am joining the bandwagon!!! Last week, some of us had Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks. Here is a very frank review- it was very very sweet. I doubt there was pumpkin in it. I am assuming there was some artificial flavor and it was kind of fake. That being said, there were others who totally enjoyed getting their sugar fix of the day. Some one even commented, I bet this is the most popular Starbucks drink among-st girls right now. Hell No!!! Not me!!!

I have experimented and come up with this super easy recipe which needs just minimal ingredients. And guess what, this drink is already gluten free and can be made vegan also.

Hello there!!! Am back after a super lazy and sick weekend. Weather in California has been fluctuating pretty badly. It was cloudy on some days and sunny the other times,as a result i fell sick. All i did over the weekend was "sleep" but some how managed to cook my favorite Kerala Style Fish Curry/ Naadan Meen Curry/Meen Vevichathu to go with steamed rice and Tapioca(Kappa). Notice the fiery red color?? Yes, that's exactly how a Fish Curry without Coconut will look like. And since am from the southern side of Kerala, this curry is exactly how they make in Allepey/Kottayam.

What's special about Fish curries prepared in Kerala is the use of Gambooge(Kodam Pulli) to add sourness to the curry. That, as per me is very flavorful and takes the taste to almost a whole another level. Fish curry in Goa is also same like how they make in Kerala. Goa, just like Kerala is blessed with abundant Coconut trees.

Hello guys,so am back with a not so very diet friendly recipe:"Caramel Stuffed Double Chocolate Chip Cookies". Doesn't that sound way beyond delicious?? So apparently, we have tea time at work every Tuesday and yesterday it was hosted by my team. And now you know why the above picture!!! As always, i was informed way too late about this and could think only of cookies in such a short amount of time. Cookies are my soulmate while in a crisis. How hard can baking them get, right?? Flour, Butter, Sugar, Eggs and throw in whatever you like and bamn!!! It's done! A glass of milk and few warm gooey chewy cookies. I am already salivating.

I personally love some real heavy duty breakfast every single day. We try to eat all traditional Kerala style breakfast that we have grown up eating like Idlis, Dosas, Appams etc. On days when that is not feasible I like to have really creamy and thick smoothies. This healthy ,creamy and easy to make smoothie is one among them. Trust me when I say you will not be tasting any avocados in it and also for all those trying to be gluten free and vegan, this avocado smoothie is a must try.

I have been keeping crazy busy from last 2 weeks. Work and other household chores has been taking up a little more than my 24 hours in a day so much so that there are so many blog posts pending to be published. I salute bloggers who have a regular 9 to 5-day job and still squeeze in the time to blog regularly. No whining, this is how it's going to be moving ahead, so I better find time to do something I love and do as my hobby.

That almost all Keralites are sea food lovers is more than an established fact with very strong proven results. We are no exception. I can have them with every meal. Last Saturday, i made some Squid Dry Roast Kerala Style also known as Kananva / Koonthal Thoran in Malayalam. Recipe is my Mom's and almost all Malayalees i know prepare it this way. As always, we went to the nearest Korean Super Market and got them fresh.

So, it was a long time no see from my side.... Can i start with the usual excuse of being neck deep at work and not finding enough time??? Apart from that, let me tell you all the actual reason, i did cook something which i thought could be put up in the blog, but had the most saddest pictures i had ever taken and i just couldn't bring myself up to post it. I had no clue as to what exactly went wrong, it's way too sunny inside my apartment almost always and that too till 8 pm which contributed to rather side sad pictures.

Oh, by the way, how does my blue wood backdrop look?? It was my recent DIY project and i have now 3-4 boards. Happy me!!!

This picture has been doing the rounds from last week and some of you had asked me for its recipe. Here it is!! Orange Almond Yogurt Loaf which i baked to celebrate my blog's first birthday last week. This cake is adapted from the HummingBird Bakery's Cake Days book. (You must definitely consider getting it if you love baking cakes, every single recipe in it is fool proof ). Almost everyone i know loves citrus flavored cakes, so after my Lemon Pound Cake, here is something with Orange. Almonds and Oranges are a to die for combination. Ever bite of this cake had an amazing orange flavor and the nuttiness of almonds. Rakesh finished almost the entire loaf with his evening tea.(Of course, not in a single day).

I cannot believe Remya has hold on to something finally for that long(apart from some obvious ones). If am not wrong it was on Rakesh's insistence she decided to blog. I also recollect the argument between them to choose from Wordpress or Blogger. Rakesh knew blogger and told Remya to go with it. Little was she aware, Wordpress was the next big thing. I think last time she was writing a blog post, i heard her murmur about how she wishes to do the migration and taunting Rakesh, had it not been for him suggesting blogger, she would have used that WordPress account she had created.

Keeping their unending arguments aside, I thank you all for loving me so much. I know she wasn't very regular for the whole year due to various reasons that she points out, I am glad she now manages to write once or twice a week. A promise she made!!

Hola folks!! If there is one good thing about this move, apart from the climate is the fact that i get to bake!! Quite often. All thanks to a lot of friends and family around. Some of Rakesh's friends had come over during the weekend and this was what i prepared for dessert. It was a big hit. I did not do a copy cat of starbucks per se, but some thing similar. Well, at least i knew the ingredients that went into this and they were very much pronounceable!!This is my version of a light weight lemon pound cake than the traditional ones. So pound cake, as the name implies, contains a pound of everything- Butter, Sugar, Flour!! Which is way too much for many of the health conscious lot! This is as lemony as it should be, moderately sweet and oh so delicious. Your best tea time accompaniment is here!

Hello guys!! I am back with a very simple, delightful and low-fat version of Matar Paneer. Unlike how they make it in restaurants, there isn't much fat in my version and hardly takes about 30 minutes to get it ready. I cook this recipe often and last made it while still in Boston. These pics were shot there. You will altogether stop buying them anymore, as it hardly takes any time.

I started preparing lot of items with paneer post marriage and some how after my paneer parantha , this matar paneer masala/gravy is my favorite. What is your favorite paneer dish? Do let me know in comments.

We have kind of settled down in our new home. Almost every weekend goes in assembling furniture, picking up stuff or attending get together's with Rakesh's friends or relatives. I promised a birthday cake for two of his(now mine too)lovely friends. And since not many had tried carrot cake before, i decided to bake it.

So apparently, there are two types of people in this world. One who love carrot cake and then the haters. I belong to the former category. How can anyone not like carrot cake is beyond me.

I know there was a no-show from my end for 10 days!! But hey, I have got reasons and this time, it's so genuine!! Remember how in my last post I had mentioned I had something to share with you all. This is it!! We have finally(finally!!!) moved to West Coast. And let me tell you all we cannot be happier anymore. We saw sunlight, and went bonkers about it. So, here i am in California!!! New place, new job and the move kept me really busy and exhausted. I have been dying to write a blog post from as long as I remember. Oh, by the way, let me tell you guys, I realized how difficult it is to get your internet connection transferred from one state to another. Seriously, it's rocket science as per the customer care representative.

Happy July Everyone!! Long weekend is almost here and I cannot be more excited!! No, it's not the holidays, I will reveal the reason in my upcoming blog posts. I decided to start off the month with some greens and what better recipe to share than the king of all green leafy vegetables!! Palak Paneer.....!! Palak means Spinach and Paneer means Cottage Cheese. I will admit one thing, I was not fond of this dish much initially. I have had this couple of times in some restaurants and it didn't click much. It felt very bland and almost tasteless. Even baby food tasted better than that.(Yes, I have tasted it, don't judge me, and no, I didn't end up eating everything meant for a baby !!!)

I am a sucker for desserts. Be it Indian, American or anything else for that matter. Occasional Indulgence is always welcome for me. At home, we mostly prefer Indian sweets, South Indian more because most of the desserts are made up of jaggery and hardly requires more than 3-4 ingredients. As Ramazan is being celebrated by Muslims all around right now and we had few friends coming in for dinner, I decided to make Phirni. I have fond memories of eating Phirni served traditionally in earthenware from Mohammed Ali Road in Mumbai. If you can ever visit this place whilst in Mumbai during Ramazan, don't think twice about it. Just go for it!! There will be an array of mouth watering veg, non- veg and desserts to make you feel guilty of not having tried them. And they serve food whole night!!

We prefer eating healthier (almost !!) and try to make smart choices most of the time. If not me, at least Hubby dear is big time into eating whole foods and works out religiously. If there is no time for a full fledged work out session, he will atleast run and come. I also try to squeeze in some or the other form of physical activity whenever i find time. Offlate there has been too much going on the work front and since i have decided i won't abandon my blog anymore, that also accounts to some action. But hey, am not complaining!! Blogging gives me immense pleasure and i have something else to do apart from being in the IT Industry(Had it not been for the $$$, i would have qu(IT)....).

I had this dish whenever I visited Kerala and it was almost always accompanied with Parotta. Especially at the local toddy shopsnwhich made them fiery red and spicy beyond tolerance levels of a normal human being. We don't get dried green peas much I believe in Mumbai and thus hardly have any memories of my mom cooking this. I tried them a couple of times with fresh peas and liked it. Most of the time, we now cook these with either frozen or fresh peas. I believe almost everyone has their own style of making green peas masala and this is my way and is loved by everyone alike.

Howdy guys!! As Onam is nearby I am already prepping up some sadya recipes every week so that I can share with you guys a few good sadya recipes. For those unaware, Onam is a festival celebrated in Kerala, the southernmost state in India that marks rice harvesting and a festival of rain flowers. There will be week long vacations for kids and elders alike. “Sadya” is a Malayalam word for feast. Traditionally several preparations are served in a banana leaf and the atmosphere overall is very joyous. I have never had the opportunity to celebrate Onam in Kerala as our family was always in Mumbai during that time. Someday it will work out and I will be in Kerala for Onam.

Let's welcome summer with some cool cool refreshers. This happens to be my first ever cocktail recipe up on the blog. I prefer mocktails more often(ready always!!!). This one i have experimented for my hubby darling, and he gave me a thumbsup!!

Mojito is a traditional cuban cocktail made with lime, white rum, mint, simple syrup and various other additions for flavors like all kinds of berries, grape fruit, pomegranate etc. You are free to experiment with your imagination.

Let us work on this sweet, smooth, summery and totally perfect mojitos which can be made under 5 mins flat!!

Hello everyone!! What was for lunch today?? We had my perfectly cooked brown rice along with amazing wild caught fresh mackerel curry and fry. Let me tell you frankly, i was not a big fan of brown rice till some time ago and the major reason for that was whenever i tried to cook it, it was either mushy or undercooked, plus it took almost 40 minutes to cook. Isn't that a strong reason enough to not cook them anymore?? Plus, lets accept white rice is defintely more tastier!!

Over the time i have come to realize how almost everything white is not such a good choice. We dont even have all purpose flour anymore in our pantry(I would secretly love too though!!). Have you guys noticed how all white stuff says "Enriched"? Bleached enriched all purpose flour ...phew!! Not only have you bleached it and you even have the audacity to call it enriched!!! White rice is stripped of vitamins, zinc, magnesium and so many other nutrients in the process of refining.

When in doubt, cook something with paneer. If there is nothing at home, by nothing i mean tomatoes, ginger, garlic etc, there has to be paneer which will be my saviour. We always have some in the refrigerator. You can make zillions of stuff out of it, plus its so delicious!!

The paneer that you get here is not very great. It can get really rubbery after cooked, which is a total turn off!! Few months back one of my friends told me about the malai paneer available in indian stores and how soft they were. She was right!! Am hooked onto them. At $6 per 400 gms, they are worth it. This is my style of paneer paratha. You can add veggies that you feel like mixing with paneer, most common being peas, which i didnt have, so just used paneer.

Hello everyone!! Isnt it summer in almost all part of the world?? New England is different you see...it mostly knows snow storms, blizzards, and more snow storms. I am forcefully trying to act like its hot and thus an ice cream. My favorite flavour always to order in restaurants is kesar pista, i just love it where as my man likes mango ice cream. This one was exclusively for him, plus i anyways had a mango left.

So in my last post how i mentioned about the weather in all its glory. Well, it looks very sad now, dark, gloomy, rainy!!! It gets very difficult to wake up early morning, all i want to do is snooze the alarm and get inside my blanket again!! The other thing that goes wrong while its cloudy are your pictures. Nothing like bright sunlight for some beautiful food photographs.

Today with our hot cup of evening coffee i made some almond biscotti's. I love biscuits, almost all of them, and always look forward to have some or the other thing to have a quick bite during evenings. Every time we go to the nearest indian store, Rakesh tends to buy so many snack items to munch upon, and well he can very much do that. He is one among those very few people in this world who can eat anything and everything they want and still be ......yes, super fit and trim!!! Someday i will cover that topic!! For now, lets get baking!! This is a fat free biscotti and i have made use of whole wheat pastry flour. You are gonna love them as a guilt free indulgence!!

Pulissery is a sweet and sour preparation made with yoghurt and ground coconut paste. It was not prepared much at our home, may be just during onam or vishu. I had them quite too often post marriage as this is a regular affair at my in-laws place. My mom-in-law makes them the best. I have learned this from her, just that she uses winter melon or ripe mangoes and i have used pineapple here. Fairly very easy, comes together in about 30 minutes and is very very tasty. Infact i have given this recipe to my mom too, which is very rare. Along with avial, we had this moru curry also today.

It's a pleasant saturday afternoon here and the temperature is in 80's(finally!!). Usually on weekends we go to H-Mart and buy some fish or shrimp or any other sea food since hardly is meat cooked much at our place. So much so that i dont even remember when was the last time we had them. Apparently Rakesh has been watching all sorts of (unwanted) documentaries and deciding which is the next meat to be given up. Its been a little more than a year that he had any and since we are only two out here, i dont bother cooking it either.

Today, as usual after 10 minutes of standing infront of the refrigerator i decided to have a vegetarian affair instead of the usual thing of reaching out to eggs for a quick egg roast or curry. There was a time when i needed fish atleast for one meal of the day and since there was seafood always in abundance in Mumbai, it wasnt an issue at all. But here we need to drive back and forth for a good 1 hour to get some and this has almost made us partial vegetarians. I had all ingredients for making avial along with pineapple moru, so decided upon them for the day. Even though i have my loyalities towards sambar, an occasional avial doesnt hurt. And yes, we like it dry without yoghurt. We never made them with yoghurt, guess its more prominent in northern kerala.

Pizza is our favorite junk food. This one sentence sums it all up. As tasty as it maybe, it definitely is not so great for your waist line. This one is a healthy alternative to the traditional pizza. I first heard about them from a workout program that i had purchased called as the 21 Day Fix(I plan to write about this program in few days). Just like most others, i too was very skeptical on trying them as to tell you the truth, i cannot stand caulifower in any form and will do anything and everything to not eat them. I have tried making the crust with eggs, but it turned very soggy and the eggless ones were better i felt. This isnt exactly like the actual pizza base, but then it's not bad either. If you are someone who is trying to watch their weight but would still like to relish few slices of a pizza, this one's for you.